Students at St. Joseph Immaculate Heart of Mary learned about the election process with a campaign and a mock election Oct. 29.

During the mock election, students in grades five through eight voted on their favorite T-shirt color and slogan. Based on the outcome, T-shirts will be made for the eighth-grade class to wear on their trip to New York City.

“Being that Nov. 5 is Election Day, they came out ahead of time so that the kids themselves could experience and get to know a little bit more about the process before their parents actually vote,” said Sandy Hintz, coordinator of the mock election.

Eighth-grade students learned about the T-shirt issue and presented their slogan to the student body, along with reasons why they should vote for it.

On the day of voting, several students were trained as poll workers.

“I think it’s easy enough,” Ashley Saxton said.

She was also a T-shirt designer.

“It was interesting, because I’m not a very good artist,” she said. “But it was fun working with all the other girls.”

Raymond Butler, a representative from the board of elections, talked to the students about the process.

“Elections are such an important part of what happens in your life,” he told them. “One of the most valuable things in this country is the opportunity to have free and fair elections.”

During the mock election, students received a ballot, took it to a table to make their selections, then waited in line to feed it into the voting machine, just as registered voters do throughout Mahoning County on Election Day. When they were done, a student poll worker handed them an “I Voted” sticker.